Too true!
I know of someone who voluntarily confessed and went to prison - for his own safety - and upon release had to relocated far away, because people affiliated with his victims family (themselves hitherto well known long standing family friends) were vowing to enact revenge. Some in his own immediate family didn't want the police involved, they wanted to give him the beating of his life instead and it caused a massive fracture between family members who intervened to prevent physical retaliation being carried out and those who felt enacting punishment themselves without the police was a better solution. Some are not talking now and never will again. It has created a horrible scar that cannot be healed. The family members that protected him are now, several years later, of the opinion that dealing with him themselves would, with hindsight, have resulted in a more satisfactory conclusion for family relations and his own overall safety going forward from the other family wronged.
As it was, the sentence was appallingly light and he was perceived to have gotten away with it. His time in prison was brief and he reoffended and still has the daily risk of being accosted by someone, not least from those affiliated with his second victim. His family have had to cut him off completely to prevent retaliation to themselves and frankly because he is a danger to their own children.
That said, PA is not technically a paedophile and though he was involved in trafficking, has not formerly been charged with anything, but it is a massive reflection of how far, far, far removed from ordinary life and consequences he is, that he could voluntarily maintain ties with someone accused of such a grave crime. At the ordinary level, people strive to remove themselves from such people. No one wants to be seen as associated or find themselves caught in the middle of some retributive justice. Particularly when they are not forced to maintain contact due to family or emotional ties.
But Andrew does the opposite. He really doesn't seem to have cared about the grubbiness of association because he himself was cushioned with protection provided by the public purse. That might well be where his issue was. Feeling very protected from consequences.